NEW YORK – Argentine President Mauricio Macri said on Monday that terrorism “doesn’t respect borders, countries or nationalities,” and he issued a call to confront it with new global tools.

“We have to understand that this ongoing attack we’re experiencing in the 21st century cannot be dealt with the tools of the 20th century,” said Macri at a tribute to the victims of the deadly terrorist attack staged last Tuesday in New York.

The event was the first Macri attended on his 48-hour visit to New York, a trip that will focus mainly on meeting with representatives of the US financial system.

The tribute was held at a spot along the bicycle path where eight people died last Tuesday when an Islamic State sympathizer ran them over with a rented truck. Among the eight people killed were five Argentines and a Belgian.

Macri, who attended the tribute ceremony along with New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, both of them accompanied by their wives, said in his brief remarks that Argentina experienced “from a distance” this “new cowardly attack” by international terrorism.

He recalled that the five Argentines who died were part of a group of friends who had come to New York to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their graduation from high school.

“This has to unite us more, to confirm and emphasize our conviction for peace, and our commitment to peace,” Macri said.

“The best way to continue fighting for peace is to continue with our lives, because what these people (i.e. terrorists) want is for us to panic, to become paralyzed, not to continue moving forward,” he said.

The Argentine leader said that in the face of international terrorism countries have to deepen their coordination.

Earlier, De Blasio said that New Yorkers and Argentines are united in mourning although they are thousands of miles away from each other.

“People all over the world are and will always be welcome in our city,” the mayor added, going on to say that the Argentines who died in the attack “will always be remembered as New Yorkers.”

“This was not only an attack in which eight individuals died in New York, it was not an attack on the United States, but on all of humanity,” the mayor said.

Both Macri and De Blasio placed floral offerings at the side of the bike path where Uzbek immigrant Sayfullo Saipov launched his deadly attack, mowing down dozens of people, killing eight of them and injuring 12.

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